Sunday December 04, 2016

It has been determined that the Note 7 fiasco was a result of too much bravado from Samsung engineers, as they tried to pack too much technology into a limited space. Basically, they were struggling to maximize capacity and put less emphasis than they should have toward component boundaries and other protective guidelines, which resulted in compressed batteries.

What’s interesting is that there is evidence in the design of an intellectual tension between safety and pushing the boundaries. Samsung engineers designed out all of the margin in the thickness of the battery, which is the direction where you get the most capacity gain for each unit of volume. But, the battery also sits within a CNC-machined pocket -- a costly choice likely made to protect it from being poked by other internal components. Looking at the design, Samsung engineers were clearly trying to balance the risk of a super-aggressive manufacturing process to maximize capacity, while attempting to protect it internally.